Hi Jema, how are you I'm fine thank you and you? Hi my name is Jema Perry and
welcome to Mooncake, ESL teaching made easy. If you're new here then you need to
know that I make weekly ESL teaching tip videos to help you improve your English
teaching. So if you are teaching ESL abroad make sure you subscribe below and
hit that notification bell for weekly ESL teaching tips. Also real quick if you
are new here say hi in the comments below and let me know where in the world
you're teaching. Teaching how are you in the classroom can be tricky and a lot of the
time the class ends up sounding like robots. This is because we tend to teach
how are you in the wrong way. Let me explain. When teaching how are you
teachers either tend to teach the robotic responds "I'm fine thank you how
are you" or they use it as a gateway to teaching feelings and emotions so
they'll teach things like "I'm good I'm great I wonderful" But when we think
about how we use how are you in our daily conversations we use the question
more as a greeting rather than a genuine inquiry into your well-being. So this is
why when we ask young students how are you and they respond like this "I'm happy"
it seems really weird. So robotic sounding response comes from the
disingenuous way that we teach how are you in the classroom. We tend to teach
those full grammatically correct sentences when in reality we would
respond far more casually. "Hey how are you I'm good thanks and you?" So if we
want students to be more fluent and more genuine with their responses then we
need to teach them a more genuine response in a more genuine tone. By that
I mean we need to teach them "I'm good thanks, and you?" rather than "I'm fine
thank you and you?" The and you at the end is also really important it's like
teaching students to say hello back to someone who has just said hello to you.
So right from the beginning, we need to teach students to ask the question back
otherwise, it just comes across this rude. But how can we practice this in
the classroom? Well that brings us on to today's game Tornado. Now to play this
game all you're going to need is a whiteboard marker some kind of animal or
toy in this case a dinosaur and an egg timer. Now if you don't have an egg timer
your phone will do. Position in the class in a semi-circle with you the teacher in
the middle. Next you're going to draw a house on the whiteboard behind you and
introduce that animal toy using TPR and chants as you do. If you're not sure how to
use TPR in the classroom make sure you check out my video on TPR linked below.
Next have students practice the 'how are you' question a few times with the
animal toy. Hello class how are you? I'm fine thanks and you? explain to the
class that the dinosaur lives in the house you just drew on the board behind you and that it has
stepped out to go to the store. However as he is at the store a tornado started
coming and you need to get him home as quickly as possible.
Explain to the class that the dinosaur needs to go around the whole circle and
get back home before the tornado comes. Introduce the
timer and set the time and have students past the dinosaur round one time without
any language points before the timer runs out so that they understand how to
play. Next, we're gonna have students practice that target language by passing
the dinosaur around the group without the timer. Have the whole class as a
group ask that first student how are you and hand them the toy. That student thwn
needs to say I'm good thanks and you and pass it to the student next to them. That
student also responds with I'm good thanks and you and hands it under the
student next to them. Keep going until the dinosaur has gone around the whole
circle. Next we're gonna do the same thing but with the timer. Make sure you
set the timer to a time that's challenging for students but not too
easy. If students aren't able to get that dinosaur around the circle and back
home before that tornado arrives then he gets blown
away. If however, they are able to get him back successfully and he's safe at home
when the tornado arrives, write down their time go again and see if they can
beat it. Though one thing's pay attention to when you're playing this game is that
as soon as you set that timer students are going to try and speak as quickly as
possible this means that they might not speak as clearly as you would like. Make
sure you highlight that students have to say the sentence clearly in order to
be able to pass on that Teddy. If they dont speak clear enough just send that Teddy back
in the other direction. So there you have it my top tips for teaching how are you in
your ESL classroom. If you like this video let me know by commenting with the
word 'helpful' in the comments below and by sharing with your fellow teachers. If
you're looking for some more fun ESL games and advice then you can check out
some of my other videos right here. That's it for this video thanks so much
for watching. You can find me on Facebook Instagram and Twitter or if you're
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